Mother says teens charged with dumping daughter’s ashes should ‘think about their actions’

Clara Ho, Calgary Herald01.29.2014

Colleen Ransom holds a photograph and a green velvet bag which had contained some of the ashes of her daughter Emma who died in a car accident 4 years ago. On August 6 car prowlers entered Ransom's truck outside her Lake Bonavista home and dumped out the ashes from the bag. They also stole a coat that had been Emma's.

A Calgary mother whose late daughter’s ashes were stolen and dumped on the pavement last summer hopes the three teens charged in connection with the incident take the allegations against them seriously.

“I’d like the girls to think about their actions and how it would affect someone else before they go ahead and do something,” said Colleen Ransom.

Three female teenagers were charged after the ashes of a young woman who was killed in a car crash were taken from her mother’s truck and dumped on the street this summer.

Police say in the early hours of Aug. 2, they were called to the area of 10th Street S.E. and Wapta Rise S.E. to investigate after items were stolen from a number of vehicles.

Ransom’s white truck was among the vehicles targeted. A green velvet pouch containing the ashes of her 19-year-old daughter Emma was in the truck, and the ashes were discovered on the pavement and the pouch tossed to the side.

Due to the rain, most of the ashes had washed away and only a small amount was recovered.

Emma and her friends Cayley Chapman, 18, and Joilinn Edgar, 19, were killed on Nov. 21, 2009, after their car crossed the median and crashed into a southbound car near Nanton as they returned to Calgary from Lethbridge.

A woman in her early 20s also died, but her six-month-old daughter, strapped in a car seat, survived and escaped with only minor cuts.

Ransom said she kept Emma’s ashes in her truck as a way to keep her close wherever she went.

The culprits also made off with spare change, sunglasses, and Emma’s turquoise rain jacket.

A 15-year-old and a 13-year-old have both been charged with theft under $5,000, and another 15-year-old has been charged with both theft under $5,000 and property damage.

They cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Ransom said she is grateful to witnesses who came forward to identify the girls.

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Mother says teens charged with dumping daughter’s ashes should ‘think about their actions’